🛠 Open Documentation of Regional Craft Skills
Tag: [IDEA]
An Open Engineering India Initiative
📌 Brief Description
An open, public archive to digitally preserve India’s traditional craft and engineering wisdom — such as Kathakali mask carving, bronze casting, wood joinery, handloom weaving, Theyyam craft, and more — through research, visual documentation, CAD models, and storytelling.
🎯 Problem / Purpose
Many regional crafts contain deep engineering knowledge passed only through apprenticeships. With modernization, these traditions are vanishing, undocumented and unrecorded.
Goal:
To openly document and preserve these skills so that future engineers, artisans, students, and innovators can learn, revive, and evolve them.
💡 Proposed Approach
- Field research, artisan interaction, interviews
- Videos & photo documentation of processes
- CAD/3D or sketch diagrams of techniques
- Material, tool & cost breakdowns
- Publish everything under open access
🚦 Current Stage
- [x] Idea
- [ ] Planning
- [ ] Gathering Contributors
- [ ] Field Research
- [ ] Publishing
🧰 Tools / Methods (Flexible)
- Research & Interviews
- Photography / Videography
- CAD / 3D Modelling (Optional)
- Writing & Language Translation
- Cultural/Ethnographic Study
📁 Files / Repository (To Decide)
Will use one of the following (community suggestions welcome):
- GitHub (for files & CAD)
- Google Drive / Notion Wiki
- Own website / archive format
🧪 Sample Documentation Types
- “How Kathakali Masks Are Made” — Process + tools + tradition
- “Traditional Bronze Casting” — Lost wax method, molds, metallurgy
- “Wooden Joint Design in Kerala Temples” — Diagrams + regional terms (Malayalam/English)
📅 Tentative Timeline
| Phase | Duration |
|--------------------|----------|
| Research Kickoff | 1 Month |
| First Craft Report | 2–3 Months |
| Ongoing Expansion | Continuous |
💰 Cost / Resource Needs (Flexible)
| Resource | Need / Status |
|------------------|---------------|
| Travel / Visits | Volunteers / Funding Later |
| Documentation Tools | Camera / Phone |
| Translation | Community support |
🤝 How You Can Contribute
- 📸 Documenting local artisans
- ✍️ Writing & translating (EN/ML)
- 📐 CAD / 3D / Sketch
- 🎥 Videography / Editing
- 📚 Cultural research & linguistics
👥 Team / Collaborators
| Member | Role |
|------------|------|
| @Initiator | Project Starter |
| @Volunteers | Researchers, Makers, Designers |
🗣 Community Questions
1️⃣ Which craft should we start with? (Suggestions needed)
2️⃣ Do you have contacts with artisans or institutes?
3️⃣ Should we build a Wiki, PDF series, or Video channel?
📜 Openness Pledge
I agree to follow the Open Engineering ethos and keep all collected knowledge freely available for educational and cultural preservation.
“Let’s preserve the wisdom of our past to inspire the engineers of our future.”
📂 Suggested Folder Structure (If using GitHub/Drive)
/Documentation/
/Kathakali_Masks/
/Bronze_Casting/
/Wood_Joints/
/Handloom_Weaving/
/Media/
/Videos/
/Interviews/
/Photos/
/CAD_Models/
/Temple_Joints/
/Tools/
/Translations/
/Malayalam/
/English/
/Research_Papers/
📢 Call for Volunteers
🙋♂️ Volunteers Needed – Open Craft Documentation Project
We are launching a community project to document Kerala’s traditional craft skills openly.
If you are interested in culture, engineering, design, filming, or CAD, you can contribute!
🧵 Project: Open Documentation of Regional Craft Skills
Roles Open:
- Field Researchers (local village access)
- Writers / Translators (EN/ML)
- Video/Photo Team
- CAD / Illustrators
- Cultural Historians
📩 Comment below or DM to join.
Let’s preserve wisdom that textbooks forgot.
🧭 Discussion: How Should We Document and Host This Project?
This project aims to become a long-term public knowledge archive.
We need community input on how and where to host all research, files, CAD, and stories.
Possible Platforms:
| Platform | Purpose |
|------------------|---------|
| Wiki / Knowledge Base | For structured articles & craft techniques |
| GitHub / GitLab | For CAD files, diagrams, open source format |
| Website / Portal | Public-facing archive with search |
| Forum Threads | Ongoing discussion & field reports |
| YouTube / Media Channel | Documentaries, interviews, visual storytelling |
Open Questions:
- Should we build an Open Craft Wiki (like Wikipedia, but for engineering heritage)?
- Should documentation be bilingual (English + Malayalam)?
- Do we need a standard template for every craft (history, tools, material, process)?
- Can we collaborate with schools, polytechnics, MITI, or artisans directly?
💬 Community is invited to suggest how we preserve this knowledge for decades.